Anna Kindy: Waiting for the legislature, the Health Crisis & Being the MLA for North Island.

Anna Kindy was sitting in her Campbell River office. Her assistant stood almost out of the frame long enough to wave, before handing Kindy a headset and disappearing. The thing I find refreshing about Kindy is she doesn’t sound like a politician, which is understandable because she only recently became one. She and her husband are both doctors. Anna Kindy was elected as the MLA for North Island on October 19, 2024 and is the Health Critic for the Conservative party Shadow Cabinet, but has yet to sit in the legislature. 

This fact emerged when I asked her about the trips between her home in Merville and the provincial legislature.

Screenshot of Anna Kindy taken during our interview

Anna Kindy: “ The NDP didn’t call the house. We had no sitting which is unusual,  currently there’s a lot of crisis that needs to be dealt with. The first sitting will be February 18th.” 

Cortes Currents: The legislature hasn’t met in how many months?  

Anna Kindy: “Well apparently, if you look back, it’s since May because usually they don’t run the legislature during the summer.”

Cortes Currents: The NDP government dropped the writ for the last election on September 21, 2024, four months after the last sitting. The legislature will have had a 278-day break when it reopens on February 18.  

Anna Kindy: “Our party did FOIs (Freedom of Information requests) to see what kind of meetings they we’re doing. To me it seems almost unconscionable that you’re not at work when you’ve been elected and  part of work  is becoming accountable, sitting in the legislature  to make sure that you respond to the questions that the electorate has and move forward on policy that might improve certain things.” 

Cortes Currents: How many times have you been to Victoria?  

Anna KIndy: “Since October 19th, I think twice. Around February 12th to 14th we have MLA school and then on February 18th, the house starts.”

Cortes Currents: Are your relationships with the NDP frosty? 

Anna Kindy: “I don’t think so. From what I hear you still talk to each other,  but once it comes to the Leg gloves are off, but behind the scenes, you try to make things work.”

“For example, with this specialist group that I met , they tried to get a hold of the Minister of Health, Josie Osborne, and for some reason they weren’t able to get through. Which surprises me a little bit, but I think she’s very busy and there’s probably layers of bureaucracy that they have to approve. They’ve talked, I think, to the Deputy Minister and they still didn’t get through.” 

“So my job will be two things. I want to talk to her personally if I can,  say, ‘hey, these are the specialists of BC.’ I probably would listen to what they have to say and then if that doesn’t happen, I bring forward what their concerns are – bring it forward so that people in BC are aware. That’s my job as a critic.”

“I’ve been pretty full on since being elected, to be honest.”

“As a caucus  we’ve  met up pretty well every week and most of the time physically. We were in Prince George a couple of weeks back and in Vancouver last week,  just so that we can coalesce as a caucus and strategize as to how we want to move forward.”

Cortes Currents: What have you done at your caucus meetings? 

Anna Kindy: “I can talk about the last one. John Rustad asked me to talk about health care.  I had five or six days to come up with speakers.  It was very well received.  Part of it was the data obtained through FOIs and the  Fraser Institute. Bacchus Barua has been doing a yearly comparative analysis of Canada, BC Healthcare and those around the world, which I think is very important to know. The Second street.org group was there.  Also we had Dr. Brian Day who’s been around in BC for a long time and went all the way to the Supreme Court to try to open up the system for people in BC, because if you’re a  judge  or a federal  politician you can access private health care. Some of the politicians who have access  voted against having universality of the ability to have a guarantee of care for the rest of us.”

“That needs to come out. We need to no longer see with ideological eyes,  because this is going to take some planning  and it’s not going to be done within a short time. We need to  have a vision of where we want our health care to be in, in a year, five years, ten years.” 

I also had Dr. York Hsiang, a vascular surgeon who  retired  recently,  talk about the Health Professions And Occupations Act, which was passed in November of 2022. It’s one of the biggest bills ever passed in BC and it wasn’t properly debated. It was five years in the making and it was geared more towards dentists but encompasses all of health care –  so nurses, doctors, dentists, physios, massage therapists, everybody. What it essentially does is it amalgamates the colleges from 16 to 6. Right now, for example, in my college, half of the positions are elected and half of them are appointed, which is a good thing because that way you get feedback from the stakeholders.”  

“Every position on the board will be appointed by the minister and the minister can, by opinion only, discharge a whole board and appoint a new board. They set up what’s called a new superintendent office and a discipline panel. The superintendent, I think, is the one that appoints  the discipline panel.” 

“Most physicians that are aware – and a lot of physicians are not – are against this bill. They’re trying to do the same thing with lawyers right now and the lawyers are suing the government. John Rustad has said he’s going to repeal it.”

“Those are the speakers we had and obviously questions throughout. It sort of coalesces the team with a vision of where we’re going. So this was health care, I think the next meeting is on First Nations.”

Cortes Currents: Are you the Shadow Critic for Health?  

Anna Kindy: “Yes, I am the Shadow Critic for Health and  it’s a big job. There’s a health crisis and one of the advantages from my background is I have a lot of connections with people on the ground . People from different areas of BC have reached out to talk to me about issues.”

“My whole thing with being a Shadow Minister is to try to cooperate with the ministry, because we need to change things. It just isn’t about politics. There’s a real crisis and, you know, we need to somehow work together as a group to try to address the health care crisis. The 2nd street. org came out with 4,500 people on the list dying before being seen.  I had a meeting with the specialist group from BC and there’s 1. 2 million people on the list waiting to be seen by specialists. I think that needs to be  brought forefront. How can we solve this? Or how can we move towards a different direction?”  

Cortes Currents: What are most of these deaths from?

Anna Kindy: “I don’t know the details of the deaths. That’s data that the Ministry should be releasing. I’m getting lots of emails from around the province. Not just from my constituents,  also from people that haven’t been able to access health care. Or are pointing out where the deficiencies are. I’m trying to  come to grips with the whole thing and how can we try to move forward on some of these issues.” 

Cortes Currents: What’s it like being an MLA when you’re back in your riding?

Anna Kindy: “We’ve responded to every single email and people that have wanted appointments are getting appointments. I personally feel that sometimes in-person meetings are very worthwhile.  So if somebody happens to be in town, we can try to coordinate things.” 

“People should feel I’d be honoured for them to come and see me.  I’m just here to do my best and,  my best might not be good enough, but I’ll try  to make things work if possible. Who you voted for doesn’t matter to me whatsoever, to be honest.” 

“I had a lady come in yesterday before looking for cursory care for psychiatry in our community. The wait times and what she’s going through is  totally unacceptable. Talking even to the neurologists in Vancouver, there’s a one year wait, if you’ve got Parkinson’s, to see a neurologist. Those numbers are not acceptable.”  

“That’s one thing about lack of GPs or lack of access to a GP. Once you have a GP, what’s the wait time for seeing a specialist? Then the wait time if you need surgery?  Sometimes you’re lucky and you get through the system quickly.  That’s great, but it should be standard.”

“There’s a huge learning curve.  There’s so many different issues.  For example, somebody asking about hydro for a certain area near the Upper Campbell River.”

“I think that’s important for people to understand that I am one person with  one and a half assistants to one and three quarter assistants who are doing a fantastic job.  I’m so happy with the gals I have working here but  we can’t do everything. You have to do your homework first.  You can’t come in and say, ‘Hey, you know, we want this’.’ What have you done in the background to help us out  so that we can help advocate for you? 

“Yesterday, for example, I had a meeting with a group from Read Island and  I’m supporting what they’re proposing.”  

“Once I’m in the legislature come February 18th, I’m going to be here a lot less but,  I’ll try to come back home Thursday night and have offices on Fridays.” 

 Cortes Currents: How can people contact you

“The email is, Anna.Kindy.MLA@leg.bc.ca and  the office number is,  778-902-8544.  Monica and Candace are helping me and we’re happy to do phone call appointments as well, because sometimes people can’t make it.  For example, today I’ve got a list to go through. If you can’t make it, I’m happy to call.” 

Links of Interest:

Top image credit: Inside the BC legislature – Photo by jmv via Flickr (CC BY 2.0) 

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